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Next 96: Spooky food

Oct 28th 2010

I've eaten some scary food in 20-something years as a food writer, some tasted scary and some only sound scary: grilled watermelon, snail's eggs, pig noses, bear paw soup and on a recent trip to Italy, horse.

(Well, there's something scary in that picture. May not all be on the plate.) My creepy meals are nothing to Anthony Bourdain's feats, but his scope and budget are huge. And, as my husband is quick to point out, I'm actually something of a food wimp. I refuse to so much as taste a McRib sandwich, even when he bought one, waved it under my nose and double-dared me.

I get sent some strange suggestions for seasonally kooky spooky food, like the chocolate cocktail Daily Sip suggests to maintain your strength between doorbell rings. There's no chocolate in it, just yellow chartreuse, port, powdered sugar and egg white. Yecch.

But spooky is a seasonal thing and this is the time of year when food gets spooky, if only in jest, at Tin Angel's Goth Halloween dinner (running tonight through Saturday night), guests are blindfolded for the surprise second course. For entree, you choose blackened New York strip with broken fingerling potatoes and shrimp diablo or seared sea scallops with a black angel hair pasta cake and blood orange buerre blanc. First and fourth courses are choose your own. Of course, you're encouraged to wear costumes, this is the Tin Angel, after all, and half the guests seem to be costumed on regular nights. You'd have to agree Robin and Kestrel look a little spooky in this pic...Dinner is $40; with wine, it's $66.60. Make reservations at 801-328-4155.

Log Haven claims to have a real ghost at their Halloween dinner (including killer steak, anti-vampire potatoes and that Halloween classic, bloody eyeballs on worms) as well as creepy cocktails like the Zombie and the Dark Spirit (Godiva liqueur in a Grenadine-rimmed glass) plus owner Margo Provost's tarot readings, details about that here.

Blue Boar Inn in Midway already has that slightly spooky eastern European vibe going, can't you just hear the terrified horses? and will serve a menu to suit on Saturday night. CallÂ 888-650-1400 for reservations.

At Pago, Scott Evans and chef Mike Richey are taking a more organic approach, focusing on the season's iconic ingredient and offering a 3-course for $30 pumpkin tasting menu on Saturday in addition to the usual menu. heirloom pumpkin soup; housemade pumpkin gnocchi made with local pumpkins, heirloom carrots, roasted corn, brown butter, sage and toasted pumpkin seeds; pumpkin chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with Dolcettiâ€™s pumpkin gelato and Amano chocolate sauce. Call 801-532-0777Â or go here to make a reservation.

For a daytime deal, especially nice for kids, put on your hat and take in the Witch's Tea in the Lobby Lounge at Grand America, tomorrow through October 31, with seatings at 1 and 3:30 p.m. The Lobby will look haunted, costumes are encouraged and, though it's hard to imagine a spooky scone, tea itself is kind of Victorian-style creepy. $16; call 801-258-6707.

My favorite celebration isn't really Halloween at all, it's Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, a traditional Mexican festival on All Souls' Day, November 1. Rico's annual Dia de los Muertos party will be on November 5 this year, because of calendar weirdness, but it will be the similar to previous bashes, sugar skull painting for kids, an authentic ofrenda honoring those passed, fantastic food from Rico's (and now Frida Bistro's) new catering menu, and plenty of margaritas at the cash bar run by Bacchus Bartending.

Add in an art exhibition, "Viva Frida" with art about the artist (unibrow=scary!!) and a do-good aspectâ€”each guest, including kids, is asked to donate at least $ 10.00 or a bag of non-perishable food items (minimum 10 items or a value of $ 10.00) for the Utah Food Bank and you have a frighteninglyspookily, oh never mind, cool event.